


Tell Me You Remember

by adiwriting



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, spec fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 21:43:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8594845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adiwriting/pseuds/adiwriting
Summary: Oliver doesn’t know he’s in a dream state. He assumes this is his world. Everything seems right. His family is happy. Laurel and him have finally figured it out. Sara and him have just hooked up in the guest house so he’s riding the high of a very satisfying blow job. All is good. Then he sees it. He sees them. Felicity and Ray Palmer. *5x08 spec fic*





	

**Author's Note:**

> Some spoilers for 5x08 included, but mostly just a heavy dose of spec ;)
> 
> Written as a reaction to the recent pics we've gotten for the 100th episode.

Oliver doesn't know he's in a dream state. He assumes this is his world. Everything seems right. His family is happy. Laurel and him have finally figured it out. Sara and him have just hooked up in the guest house so he's riding the high of a very satisfying blow job. All is good. 

Then he sees it. 

He sees _them_. 

Felicity and Ray Palmer. 

They are friends of his father. Palmer Tech has a very lucrative contract with QC in which they upgraded pretty much all of the tech at QC. Oliver's met Ray several times at various high society functions like this one. He's nice enough. But that's not what stops him in his tracks upstairs to get his tux on. 

No. 

It's Felicity Palmer. 

Oliver knows her. She's the cute but nervous girl who used to fix his computer and cell phone before she left QC to go work with her husband. 

He's always found her adorable. She always made him laugh. But he never really looked at her beyond that, because she'd made it clear that she was in love with her husband and there are some lines Oliver will never cross. 

He's imploded many a relationship before by sleeping with girlfriends, fiancés, and wives... but those women had all been unsatisfied and looking for something. Felicity was and continues to remain content. 

So he doesn't really understand why now, he's stopping to admire the girl. She's gorgeous, for sure. A sight to behold in that gown. But that's not it. It's like something is pulling on him. Screaming at him to figure it out. Then he has a flash — a vision of her lying naked next to him — and he chastises himself. 

He needs to pull it together. He's just gotten off with Sara and he's about to marry Laurel. He can control his libido for another few hours. 

And then another flash comes. 

Felicity is crying, there's blood on her head. She's yelling at him to continue to fight. It's so real that it pulls at his heart and makes him yearn for something that he doesn’t even remember. 

He looks around the room at all the people in their formal wear and he starts noticing everything. The colors look too bright, the edges of the room fuzzy.  

And then his eyes fall to his father and it hits him. A memory of his father dying. A sliver of a thought... He left Oliver with a responsibility didn’t he? Something he'd wanted him to do? 

He can’t be sure. It sounds crazy. His dad is right there alive and well talking to Tommy’s dad. 

This is just pre-wedding jitters. This is his commitment-phobia as Laurel calls it. He just needs to grit his teeth and it will pass. This intense urge to run will pass. 

He sees his mother and he can remember her lying on the ground bleeding out while Thea cried, even if he can't piece together why. 

He can remember John Diggle, one of the family’s security guards with... a wife? That can’t be right. He’s not married. And Oliver certainly never stood up in his wedding. They aren’t that close. 

Then, even crazier memories come to him. Ones of Sara in black leather engaged in various fights. Ones of Thea with a bow and arrow. He even sees Ray Palmer in some kind of robot-like suit. 

Then, his eyes land of Felicity and it all comes flooding back to him. This isn’t real. This isn’t his life. 

His life involves a sabotaged boat. An island from hell. Assassin training. Mystical heads that turn people crazy. A dangerous brotherhood. 

His life involves wearing a mask and saving the city. 

His city. 

Star City. 

God. His city needs him right now. What is he doing here?

Barry accidentally opened up a portal to a world with aliens. He’s got to do something. _Somebody_ has to look after the city. And that somebody is him. 

The Green Arrow. He has to find a way out of this world and get back to his own.

That’s when he feels it. A dull stinging pain in the back of his neck like somebody is pushing a needle into him. When he reaches around to grab at his neck, nothing is there. 

Oliver marches right over to Felicity and Ray Palmer. 

“Excuse me, Ray. Do you mind if I borrow your wife for a minute?”   


“Um... Sure?”   


He realizes that he needs to cover his tracks so he doesn’t look incredibly suspicious. He has no idea who all in this room may be in on this weird alternate reality he’s found himself in. He’s probably been sent here so that he won’t get in the way of the invasion of Star City.   


“Just trying to finish up a last minute surprise for Laurel and need some womanly advice,” he says with a smile.   


Oliver brings Felicity to an empty room and shuts the door before turning on her. 

“Tell me you remember,” Oliver says.   


Felicity looks at him like he’s crazy. “Remember what, Mr. Queen?” 

Oliver grabs her face and gives her a kiss. She doesn’t respond at first, but after a moment or two finally does. 

When he pulls back, he rests his forehead against hers. “Tell me you remember.” 

Felicity gasps in surprise before saying, “Oliver?” 

“Yes... Now help me go get the others to remember.”   


Felicity grabs onto his hand to stop him from leaving the room. 

“What?” he asks her, anxious to get the others and get the hell out of whatever _this_ is. 

“I just want to make sure that _you’re_ sure.”   


“What do you mean?”   


“Well isn’t this what you always wanted? Your family is all together again. Laurel is alive and well. Sara never joined the League of Assassins. You were never shipwrecked on Lian Yu. You could be happy here, Oliver.”   


“It’s not real, Felicity,” Oliver says.   


“But it feels real.”   


“Is this what you want? To stay here married to Ray?” 

The thought sends an icy chill down his spine.   


“No. But I want you to be happy. And you could be, here. You would be able to let go of all of that pain... I don’t want to take that from you.”   


Oliver stops to truly think about it. This life really is everything he’s always wanted. It would be so easy to let himself slip into this world where all of his loved ones are back. 

Why wouldn’t he want a world where Tommy is upstairs right now, writing his best man speech? Why would he go back to a world filled with so much trauma when he could have his entire family here together and whole once more? 

He _could_ be happy here. 

He could finally let go of everything he’s been carrying around for years and truly be content. This is everything he’s always dreamed about. 

Except, he can’t. 

He knows he can’t. 

Oliver’s not a good man in this universe. He’s a dick. A selfish asshole that can’t even treat his fiancee with a modicum of respect on their damn wedding day. 

“I just hooked up with Sara in the guest house,” he tells her, causing a look of shock to cross her face.   


“Okay... Not sure why I needed to know that.”   


“Because this Oliver? The man that’s getting ready to marry Laurel while still sleeping with her sister? It’s not me, Felicity. I’m not this oblivious, selfish guy anymore.”   


“You don’t have to be. If you stayed here, you could become a better man,” she argues.   


“Could I? Could I really live with the knowledge that I selfishly chose to stay here while my city needed my help? While my friends fought this battle for me alone?” he asks. “No...”   


“Okay,” she says with a smile. “Then let’s figure out how to get out of this place. It’s creeping me out.”   


“Really? That’s it? You’re convinced that quickly?”   


“Oliver, I’ve always known that no matter how much your life sucked on that island and no matter how much pain you went through, it helped to make you a better man. It’s shaped you into the hero that Star City needs. Into the caring mayor that we need. You are not the sum total of all of your pain. You are so much more than that... But I could never convince you of that on my own. I tried and I failed. Even when you let yourself be happy with me, you still held onto the island...”   


“I didn’t want to...”   


“I know.”   


“I want to be able to let it go.”   


“Well maybe now we both realize that it’s a good thing you don’t. Because it’s those memories that have made you empathetic. It’s that pain that gives you the compassion to continually risk your lives for others. That’s the man I fell in love with. Not the jerk I’ve see today.”   


“I’ve been carrying around this weight for years... One that kept gnawing at me. Saying, if I never got on that boat, that life would be different. That everyone’s life would be better off. And in some ways, that’s true. My family is together. Laurel is alive and well. Tommy’s...” he pauses because a lump forms in his throat that makes it difficult to speak, so he quickly pushes past that thought. 

“It’s all fake, Felicity. My dad is still cheating on my mom. Malcolm is still planning an undertaking — I saw what looks like the list in his jacket pocket. Laurel is completely satisfied to marry a man who constantly cheats on her because she’s too scared to admit she has feelings for Tommy. And Tommy... “ 

Oliver starts to cry. Because even if he knows going back is the right thing to do, there are just some things he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to accept. And loosing Tommy is one of them. It’d been one of the more pointless losses of his life. Not that any of the loses were easy to accept, but for some reason Tommy’s always hit him incredibly hard. 

Felicity places her palm over his heart. 

“Tommy would be happy to know that, in his death, his best friend became the hero this city needs. That it forced you to take those first, terrifying steps back into the light and begin seeing the world as more than your enemy.” 

“Leaving here will be like killing them all over again,” he admits, shaking his head. He doesn’t know if he can do that.   


“Oliver, you don’t have to leave. I won’t make you.”   


Oliver takes a deep breath. 

“You and I both know it’s the right thing to do. No matter how much I miss my parents... Tommy and Laurel.. I’m not happy here. This isn’t how life was supposed to go for any of us. And the city needs us... That used to feel like such a burden, but I think I’m starting to see that it’s a gift.” 

“There are a lot of people that would agree. Thousands of people whose life you’ve saved over the years,” she says with a smile.   


“A part of me will always feel guilty for the death of my loved ones,” he says.   


“And that’s what makes you a good man,” she says.  


Oliver nods. 

“Now let’s go get the team together and kick some alien ass,” Felicity says, stepping away from him. The space snaps him out of the intimate moment they’d found themselves in and back to reality.   



End file.
